The State unit of Communist Party of India (CPI) will launch rail roko agitations in the delta districts on October 9 roping in its agricultural wings to condemn the intransigent attitude of Karnataka and the Central government’s inaction on the Cauvery issue, party leader D. Pandian said on Thursday.
The decision to organise rail roko at 14 places, three each in the districts of Thanjavur, Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam, and one each in Tiruchi and Cuddalore districts was taken at the party’s executive committee meeting at Tirupur, he said. Karnataka’s attempt to incite its people and citing the unrest in the State to appeal in the Supreme Court against the order to release even 9,000 cusecs as directed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was tantamount to a threat to federalism. “The ruling BJP in Karnataka and the State’s Congress Ministers at the Centre, seem to have forgotten that India is a federal country,” he said.
The persisting problem has affected agriculture in Tamil Nadu very badly, subjecting several lakhs of agricultural labourers to abject misery. Coupled with power cuts, the Cauvery issue has affected normalcy in Tamil Nadu. Karnataka has failed to abide by the interim verdict of Cauvery River Authority to release water since May. The stalemate in the Cauvery issue had led to a dangerous situation of confrontation between people of Karnataka and Tamil Nadu in the border areas. Failure of the Centre to intervene and find a lasting solution by prevailing upon Karnataka to abide by the CRA verdict will lead to disastrous consequences, he said.
The party’s senior leader R. Nallakannu will lead the protest in Nagapattinam district, and Member of Parliament K. Raja in Tiruvarur district, while he will take part in the agitation in Thanjavur district.
The party will highlight the issue as also the demand for additional power from the Central grid to Tamil Nadu to tide over the crisis. Even if Tamil Nadu purchases power from the Northern States, the transmission capacity was not adequate. Hence, the Centre should pave way for Tamil Nadu to draw the entire power produced in Neyveli and Kalpakkam power plants for its use, and transfer the power that it purchases from Northern States to the Central grid, so that there will be no line loss.
Party senior leader R. Nallakannu said that Tamil Nadu was already incapacitated due to inadequate water to raise Kuruvai crop and was now facing difficulty in raising samba too.
